A Ranger's Shadow
by Silver Ventus
Summary: Kellyn Forrester, a boy from Fiore who has lost some of his memories, dreams of becoming a ranger. However, fulfilling this dream may cause some of the ghosts from his forgotten past to come back to haunt him. How will he become a ranger and save Almia while unknown characters from his past threaten everything he holds dear?
1. Preface

**A/N:** **Yeah, I decided to write yet another story. This is something that I just started to ship and I really couldn't get it out of my mind. I'll probably be focusing on this more than my other two stories. I'll still work on the other two, but this one kind of takes precedence. **

**This story is boy x boy. If you don't like that or are against it, then don't read it.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. If I did then, well, this might be a canon story.**

**Preface**

Kellyn put the last folded shirt into his bag and forced it shut. Today was the day; he was finally going to the Ranger School in Almia. He had left his orphanage in Fiore about a week before and had been staying in a hotel that the Ranger Union had paid for him to live at until everything was set up for him to take the entrance exam and transfer into the current class. The people that ran the hotel weren't bad, and the four days at sea getting here were fun; he even got to see all kinds of different pokémon. However, staying cooped up in the hotel for three days made him desperate to get out. He'd already gone through all of the books that the hotel owners had lent him, and they had told him that there wasn't even a library nearby. He was definitely ready to leave for Ranger school.

_Well,_ he thought, a smile coming to his face, _at least one thing never changes._ Back at the orphanage he used to be quite the problem child. The caretakers had found out early on that the only way to keep him occupied for long was to give him a few books to read. Sure when he didn't have a book he would go out and play with the other children, but when that wasn't an option his abundant energy would be a problem for the caretakers, especially when he was younger. The real problem came, however, when he would wonder off into the city and play with the different pokémon he could find. Needless to say supplying him with a lot of books to read was much easier than searching for him whenever this would happen, and much less stressful. That's why the caretakers began to take Kellyn on weekly trips to town to get books from the Library.

One day he read an adventure novel about a ranger, and since then he made it his goal to become one. He loved the thought of helping people and pokémon, and he read everything he could get his hands on about them. That's how he learned the basics of how to use a styler and, with the help of the local rangers, he became pretty good at working them, in his opinion, at least.

Kellyn looked out of the window at the sunset lighting up the sky in reds, oranges, and yellows, almost like the sky and sea were on…

_Well, that's enough of that._ He thought decidedly, quickly redirecting his thoughts. He had just consolidated all of his bags near the door when a knock came from it. Cracking it open slightly, Kellyn looked up to see a friendly looking ranger with dark hair. "Hi!" she said, waving her hand, "I'm Luana, nice to meet you! I'm the ranger that's going to take you to the ranger school. Do you have everything?" Kellyn nodded and picked up his bags. She smiled and led him out of the hotel and toward the school that would start adventures that Kellyn knew would change his life.

**Author's Note**

**So, that's the end of the preface. I'm already working on chapter one and I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to the rest of this story. R&R!**


	2. Chapter 1: Ranger School

**A/N: I said that I was already working on the first chapter, didn't I? Well, here you go. I gift unto you all the preface and chapter one all in the same day. You're welcome.**

**Disclaimer: As I said before, I don't own Pokémon. I do love Rangerschoolshipping, though.**

**Chapter 1: Ranger School**

"Wow that was a pretty good capture. Now you're allowed to join our school's secret army. With you and all of our students we'll be able to rule the world!" The instructor laughed maniacally and Kellyn took a step back, looking at him strangely, wondering if he should laugh with him or just walk out the door. "Mr. Kaplan, stop trying to scare the children with that joke!" They both turned around to see a woman with a white skirt, a light green shirt, and a really intimidating look on her face. Mr. Kaplan shrunk away slightly and rubbed the back of his head. Before he could say anything in defense the lady turned toward Kellyn.

"Hello," she started, her expression kind, "I'm your teacher, Ms. April. Let me escort you to the class and introduce you to your class mates." They walked into the school building and Ms. April motioned for Kellyn to wait outside of the classroom. He heard her begin to talk to the class and when she mentioned a new student, the entire class began to talk.

"I wonder if they're a boy or a girl."

"Do they look like a celebrity?"

There were a ton of other questions, but Ms. April just sounded amused when she told them that they'd have to learn for themselves. Kellyn took that as his cue to walk in, and he immediately felt everyone's eyes on him. "Right," Ms. April said as Kellyn walked up to the front, "This is Kellyn Forester. He'll be joining us and hopes to be a ranger in the future. Keith, what's up with that look?" Kellyn looked at where Ms. April stared and saw a red headed boy smirking up at him. Kellyn looked at him for a second before averting his gaze, and Ms. April continued. "Anyway, Kellyn, you can take the seat next to Keith, and I need someone to tour him around later, how about you, Rhythmi?" The blond haired girl sitting across the walkway from him accepted happily, and Ms. April smiled at her. "Now," she said, walking toward the door, "I'm going to give you all a free period. Rhythmi, you can take Kellyn on that tour whenever you feel like it. Keith, I don't want to hear about you doing anything you shouldn't." With that the teacher walked out of the room. Kellyn stood up and found himself surrounded by the class.

"Where are you from?" One girl asked, everyone staring at him expectantly. "The Fiore region," he said, and a couple of people's eyes widened. "But, that's so far away!" Another girl asked, but the statement was drowned out by a boy excitedly asking him which city he was from and whether or not he had known any rangers there. "Um, well, I'm from Fall City, and I did hang out with some rangers occasionally, especially after I found out that I wanted to be one, but they did have to go on missions, so I didn't get to be around them all the time." He was starting to feel a bit crowded by all of the students that only seemed to get closer to him, oblivious to how he was feeling.

"Hey, new kid, how long did it take you to catch the Pikachu? Like an hour?" Kellyn looked over at the voice and saw that it was the Keith guy, now standing up and looking at him with another smirk. Before he could answer Rhythmi smacked Keith upside the head. "Don't be so rude, Keith. Anyway, Kellyn, we can take that tour now if you want to. I'd hate to make you miss a lot of class later on." She walked him out of the classroom and led him across the hall to a door that looked just like the one to their classroom. He could smell something sickly sweet and Rhythmi laughed at the expression he was making. "This is Mr. Kincaid's class, and that smell would be his hairspray." She opened the door and the smell intensified, making Kellyn want to gag. He barely kept a straight face, not wanting to offend the teacher and get in trouble.

"Hello, Mr. Kincaid. This is our new student, Kellyn, and I'm just giving him a tour of the school." Mr. Kincaid looked at both of them suspiciously before sighing in what sounded like aggravation. "If that's all you're doing, continue on with it and stop disrupting my class." As the two of them were walking out, Kellyn heard him yelling something about running in the halls behind them. "That's, like, his signature phrase, but he's not even kidding. He'll give you detention just for walking fast no matter what the reason. He and Keith are constantly at odds with each other." Rhythmi said, keeping herself from laughing. Kellyn could already tell that he wouldn't like that teacher very much.

Next was the teacher's room where they saw Principal Lamont, then she walked him into a room that he knew he's be spending a lot of time in: the school Library. Kellyn's eyes widened in amazement and the everlasting smile on Rhythmi's face grew even larger. "God, you're just like Isaac. He's our resident boy genius, and I think he's standing over there looking at the books." Kellyn saw a blond haired boy with a mushroom looking haircut, but didn't bother him. He knew that look of concentration and besides, who bothers someone while they could be looking for something to read? He and Rhythmi walked upstairs after she showed him the basement, telling him that it belonged to Mr. Kincaid and that students were only allowed to go down there if he gave them permission. There he met Janice, the mother figure for all of the kids at the ranger school. She reminded him of the caretakers at his old orphanage, and he knew that he would get along with her really well. When he tried to see what the boys' dorm looked like, though, Rhythmi caught his arm and told him that he could see it after class, once Janice had finished cleaning.

Finally she brought him outside of the building, but before they finished the tour she suggested that they stop by the building where Kellyn took the entrance exam to review things like capturing and target clears. Kellyn agreed and they got an extra lesson from both of the teachers there and, thankfully, Mr. Kaplan didn't bring up the secret army thing, though Kellyn thought that that was because of the other teacher that was there. Rhythmi lead him out around fifteen minutes later. "Come on, there's one more place that I really want to show you." Kellyn smiled and followed her; the excitement that she showed was contagious. The two of them started across the grounds, but a call for help stopped them almost immediately after they had walked out of the building. "Is that Janice?" Rhythmi asked, but Kellyn was already running toward the source of the sound. When he got there he saw a bunch of bidoof running around.

"Oh, thank God you're here, Kellyn! I think I accidently stepped on the leader bidoof's tail and caused him to panic!" Kellyn turned around to capture the bidoof, but a voice behind him caused him to turn around. "Hey, new kid, this is the perfect opportunity for you to show me your capture skills. How about we have a contest?" Keith had walked out of the building after hearing Janice calling for help, and he couldn't be happier that he did.

"Goodness Keith, aren't you supposed to be napping in the Library right about now? Well, if you're going to try to catch them than you two had better make it quick. I'm sure Janice wants to get the bidoof under control before they get hurt and I still need to finish Kellyn's tour." Rhythmi's voice spurred them on, and the two boys raced across the grounds. It was over in a few minutes. Keith won, having caught one more bidoof than Kellyn. After a short moment of celebration, he turned to Kellyn and smiled. "You know, Kellyn, you actually did pretty well, especially for a new kid. Most people don't catch nearly as many pokémon as I do when I challenge them." Keith looked at Kellyn as if he were sizing him up, and then smiled, but before he could say anything else to him Rhythmi walked up to the two of them.

"Now that that's over, I still have one more place to show you, Kellyn!"

"You mean Ascension Square? I'll come too," Keith said, walking with Kellyn and Rhythmi as they made their way across school grounds to a stair case leading down into an area with a pier and a statue.

"This is Ascension Square. They say that if people state their dreams in front of the Pledge Stone over there, then they'll come true." Rhythmi beamed up at the statue, a large ranger symbol, and Kellyn walked toward it, mouth open in amazement. As he stepped closer, Kellyn noticed a section of the stone that had writing on it. _What's this?_ He thought, stepping closer to examine it. There was a list of names, and among them he spotted some very familiar ones. _I see, so they went here as well._ Kellyn had a nostalgic smile on his face as he looked at the names of some of the rangers he had met in Fiore. This didn't go unnoticed by Rhythmi and Keith, but as Kellyn traced his fingers over the names, the two of them exchanged slight smiles at the sight of their new classmate.

As soon as Kellyn stood up, Rhythmi walked over to him. "Well, that's the end of the tour, how about we become friends, Kellyn!" Kellyn was surprised, but Keith's shout interrupted his thoughts. "Hey, forget about that hag, why don't you be friends with me instead!" As Keith and Rhythmi began to argue, Kellyn laughed. _Everything's so different here_ he thought, _but I like it. It's a nice change of pace._

"Okay, all three of us can be friends." Rhythmi said with a smile while Keith nodded with a smirk, and Kellyn smiled at the two of them. "Sure!"

"How about, in recognition of our friendship, we state our dreams in front of the Pledge Stone and pledge to make them come true?" Rhythmi looked at the other two once she suggested it and smiled even more, if that were possible, when both of them agreed to the idea.

Rhythmi was first. "I pledge to become a Top Operator and work at the Ranger Union." She looked at Keith who stepped forward and looked up at the stone.

"I pledge to become a Top Ranger and help others whenever I can." Next he looked at Kellyn, who stepped forward, not sure what to say. Finally, after a short pause, he smiled.

"I pledge to become a ranger and do my best to help all people and pokémon as well as make everyone back home in Fiore, here in Almia, and anywhere else safe."

The three of them sat in silence for a moment, but the school bell rang and brought them out of their individual thoughts as they laughed once more. "Come on guys," Rhythmi said, running ahead, "we have to get back." She ran ahead and was followed by Keith, who looked back to see Kellyn staring out at the sea, the setting sun shining on his saddened face.

_I wonder what he's thinking about_ Keith thought, but he shook his head. Even though he was still considered a kid, he knew enough to know that everyone had their demons. When Kellyn looked up at him, the sad look was replaced by a smile that still seemed to hold a few traces of his previous expression. Keith decided right then that Kellyn looked much better with a smile, even if it was a bit pained. He looked over at the Pledge Stone again and sighed. _Alright stone, one more to add,_ Keith thought, _I_ _pledge to do my best to always be there for him, and even if his smile fades I'll do what I can to lighten whatever burden it is that he carries._

He smiled to himself and, once he saw that Kellyn had begun walking toward the stair case, Keith walked up to stand beside Rhythmi, who gave him an odd look. "You look strangely happy. Should I be worried?" She joked, and Keith stuck his tongue out at her, which led to yet another round of friendly banter. When Kellyn joined them, Keith's smile grew slightly mischievous. He took off across the grounds, turning to yell, "Last one there has to set a pichu loose in Kincaid's room!" The other two raced forward, quickly catching up to Keith and ending the race in a tie, only celebrating shortly before Kincaid yelled at them all about running, only sparing them from detention because they weren't in the building.

**Author's Note**

** Well, there you go. I hinted a little bit toward their relationship, but I should tell you now that I'm trying not to make it overly fluffy. I really don't like it when the stories I write end up with nauseating amounts of fluff. I will say that I have some things planned out for when Kellyn leaves Ranger School, and I can't wait to get to them.**

** R&R!**


	3. Chapter 2: Initiation Night

**A/N: Hello people, I'm back again. What is this? Am I really updating a story more than twice in **_**two days? **_**GASP! Say it isn't so! Well, this is the second chapter of A Ranger's Shadow, hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Silver Ventus does not own any Pokémon or the character that are canon in the world of Pokémon. **

**Chapter 2: Initiation Night**

_Dear Little Sister,_

_ It's been a while, hasn't it? The orphanage sent your recent letter to me because I got into the Ranger School here in Almia! It's really fun and I've made a few really cool friends already. They took me to a place called the Pledge Stone where we promised that we would achieve our dreams. It sounds a little cheesy, but it was fun anyway._

_ You'd never believe how big the school's Library is! Of course it's not as big as the one back in Fall City, but I was still amazed at how many books there were!_

_ I'm hoping that you have a lot of fun in Fall City, and I hope to see you soon!_

_ Big brother Kellyn_

After finishing his letter, Kellyn looked up to see Keith staring at it. Kellyn jumped back on reflex, clutching the letter to his chest. Keith just looked at him with wide eyes. "Dude, I didn't know you had a sister. How old is she?"

Kellyn was glad that he reacted quickly; it looked like Keith had only read who the letter was for and not that it was sent from an orphanage; Kellyn didn't really feel like explaining that situation quite yet. He sighed and looked away, cheeks slightly pink. Keith noticed and grew even more suspicious, but he didn't say anything because he could tell that Kellyn was about to answer him and asking would only make it less likely to happen.

"She's not actually my sister; we're not even related at all. We just grew up together, but we were close enough for me to consider her and her parents my family." Kellyn chanced a look at Keith and saw him look confused. "That's not weird at all," Keith started, and Kellyn looked relieved, "and here I thought I was about to discover a skeleton in your closet." Kellyn just laughed, thankful that his friend wasn't too suspicious and that, even if he were, he was kind enough not to say anything more. "I guess it's just feels a little childish that we still refer to each other like that," Kellyn said, the pink on his cheeks already fading. They shared a smile before Keith opened his mouth to speak.

"It's pretty dull in here. Why don't we sneak out for a bit?" Kellyn's eyes widened and he looked at the door and then back at his friend. "Don't worry," Keith said quickly, noticing the reluctance in Kellyn's eyes, "we won't get in any trouble." Kellyn nodded and followed him out of the door where he saw a group of his classmates gathered, waiting for them.

"What took you so long?" Rhythmi asked. "He was afraid of getting caught, Keith said, gesturing at Kellyn, "Anyway, who gets to explain the initiation this time?" Kellyn looked over at Keith when he said 'initiation,' dread beginning to spread throughout his body. Rhythmi just stepped forward. "I guess it's my turn. Don't look so worried Kellyn, it's not like we're going to hurt you or anything." Her tone was bright, and when Kellyn looked like he had calmed down a bit she continued.

"It's kind of a tradition at the school that the new student has to go through. It was started a couple of years ago and we've just kept it up since. The new student has to gather four of their classmates' stylers and put them in the basement before coming back upstairs so that we can celebrate them joining the school. Since it's dangerous and risky for them to go alone, we have a rule that they have to go with the person that's sitting next to them, in your case that would be Keith."

Keith looked less than happy when his name was mentioned, but he moved to the top of the stairs without too much protesting. As everyone else wished them luck, the two of them went downstairs to begin the initiation.

They took about two steps off of the staircase before a noise caused Keith to shriek and jump back in surprise, grabbing onto Kellyn's arm as he peeked around him at where the noise came from. "Keith," Kellyn said, stuck between laughing and telling his friend that he was hanging on too tightly, "you do realize that it's just a bidoof, right?"

Keith's reaction was instantaneous. "Of course I did!" If Kellyn didn't know any better, he could've sworn that he saw Keith's face turn red. He laughed at his friend and, ignoring the glare that was sent his way, he continued on to Ms. April's room, where he decided he should begin his search.

"Hold on, there's actually a clue for here. 'It's something that wasn't here before.' There, now get searching." Kellyn walked inside of the room, saw the crates, and immediately left. Keith followed him as he approached the bidoof in the hallway. Once he captured it, Kellyn turned to Keith, "look, it's your good friend, Mr. Bump in the Night." Keith rolled his eyes and motioned for Kellyn to keep going, grumbling something about his sass level.

Kellyn ignored him once again and continued to break the crate at the back of the room, guessing that it would be the one that his classmates put the styler in since it was the one that took the most effort to get to. Plus, they would probably get a kick out of the thought that he went through the trouble of breaking the two other crates in the room.

They continued onto Mr. Kincaid's room, where Kellyn had to catch a zubat that wouldn't stop chasing after him after he had grabbed the styler from the back counter, and then went to the teacher's room. "Hold on, this clue is that it doesn't stay in one place," Keith said, and Kellyn walked into find a pichu standing at the back of the room with the styler on it. He ended up frightening it and Keith laughed as he chased it across the room, finally catching up with it and enjoying the break before Keith told him that they should keep going.

They found the last styler in the Library, where Kellyn had to break crates _again._ Finally, Keith and Kellyn stood at the top of the stairs that led down to the basement. Goosebumps broke out on Kellyn's skin, but he blamed it on a draft he thought he could feel coming from below. _Way to make it even creepier_ he thought sarcastically before turning to Keith.

"So, um, we really have to go down there?" Both of them stared down into the basement before Kellyn finally steeled himself. "Okay. In and out, I can do that." He turned to Keith, "if Kincaid finds me, you can have my books. Actually, scratch that, give them to Rhythmi and Isaac, you wouldn't respect them." He knew that they were friends, but sometimes the truth had to be said. "Right," Keith said, "except that we're both going down there because I would hate to deal with Rhythmi if she ever found out I ditched you. I doubt even those pillows you call books could appease her. I'd be a dead man." With a shared smile, the two of them forged on into the basement.

"Hmm, you know, it's actually not that dark in here," Keith said while looking around. "Hold on," he looked confused, and then pointed to two stacks of wood in front of them, "Kellyn, I've never seen target clears like those before, and they definitely weren't here earlier." The two went ahead, albeit much more slowly and with more caution then before. Kellyn cringed when he made the bidoof he had luckily thought to catch beforehand break a crate blocking his path, the crash echoing in the silent room. They reach the mystery target and Kellyn scanned it with his styler. "Oh, these can be cleared with the zubat. Lucky, huh," he said, looking back at Keith.

His face looked way too pale and his eyes were wide in fright. "Keith, do you need to sit down or something? Maybe we should take you back upstairs..." Kellyn trailed off when Keith shook his head. "Look, Kellyn, I appreciate it and everything, but I already said that whatever happens will happen to both of us." Kellyn was surprised, but Keith was even more so when he saw the other boy smile fondly at him. "Cut it out, you're being weird," Keith said, grinning as he pushed Kellyn forward. "Go on, do your thing, I'll be right behind you using you as a human shield."

Kellyn used the zubat to cut the target and then turned the corner and placed the stylers outside of what he assumed was the door to Mr. Kincaid's lab. "Hurry, let's get out of here before Kincaid…What was that sound?!" Keith looked around the room and Kellyn assumed that he was just hearing things until he heard it too. Kellyn barely had enough time to process what _it_ was before five ghastly came out of the wall in front of them. There was no way they'd be able to run, so Kellyn pulled a screaming Keith behind him as he got ready to capture the ghastly. They were on him before he knew it, and they made it extremely hard to complete the capture since they would keep disappearing and reappearing behind him or to the side, but somehow Kellyn managed, and he even got Keith to calm down.

That's when the door to the lab opened and Kincaid came out. "Who is making such a racket at this hour? It's past curfew!" Kellyn and Keith bolted, leaving the four stylers behind. Thankfully Kincaid didn't notice, instead heading back into the lab and telling whoever was in there that the interruption had been nothing important.

Keith and Kellyn made it to the top of the basement stairs, certain that Kincaid was too busy talking to whoever was in there to come after them. "I'm so _useless_!" Keith said suddenly, banging his fist on the ground. "Here we were just doing a freaking initiation, and I act like a total wimp! Not only that, but when you actually needed my help I just screamed and hid. What kind of friend am I?" Keith started rubbing his temples in frustration, and Kellyn waited a moment for his irritation to lessen a bit before saying, "It's alright Keith. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and once we know what they are, we can work on getting even better. Granted there are some lines that can't be crossed, but we can still do the best that we can."

Keith gave him a strange look that made Kellyn feel a bit self-conscious, and he could feel the heat rising to his face. Before he could begin to sputter random nonsense, however, Keith looked away and there was a moment of silence before he began talking. "You know, when you first showed up, and even when you and I had that capture contest, I knew that you were pretty smart, but I never would've thought that you'd be this strong, and I definitely didn't think you had any sense of humor. I guess that I'm just glad that you could unwind enough to act like that around us."

Kellyn looked away bashfully, the heat exploding across his face. "I'm glad that I could unwind, too, but I don't really consider myself a strong person." He saw that Keith was going to object, so he raised both of his hands in front of him and smiled. "That doesn't mean that I won't be one day, I just don't think of myself like that right now. I guess that's one of the reasons why I'm here." He rubbed the back of his neck and Keith looked a bit shocked before he chuckled. "I guess it's a good thing you don't think of yourself like that then, huh?" They both laughed a bit before Keith stood up, holding a hand out for Kellyn to grab onto, and they headed up the stairs. When they heard the sounds of the party, however, Keith grabbed onto Kellyn's arm Kellyn turned around to face him.

"One last thing," Keith said, looking a bit panicked, "don't tell them that I screamed." Kellyn burst out in laughter, making Rhythmi open the door to usher them inside before a teacher, namely Kincaid, gave them detention for being out of the dorm area after curfew.

**Author's Note**

**I like to think that that chapter had a few fluffy moments in there. Anyway, I really just can't bring myself to put this story down, I keep thinking of new things everytime I try to. R&R guys! **

**Next chapter is a filler so that we can learn a bit more about the back story that I gave Kellyn.**


End file.
